


Pinned and Pining

by KittyGalaxy



Category: Rusty Quill Gaming (Podcast)
Genre: Good for them, M/M, The inherent homoeroticism of swordfighting, carter tries to recruit barnes, how far is Barnes' shirt unbuttoned today?, shitty pick up lines by your favourite annoying rogue, the answer is always down to the navel, these bitches gay, you can decide how successful he is, zolf and wilde are only mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 15:54:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29316672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KittyGalaxy/pseuds/KittyGalaxy
Summary: Carter is sent to recruit a man by the name of James Barnes. He catches feelings instead.
Relationships: Commander James Barnes/Howard Carter (Rusty Quill Gaming)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	Pinned and Pining

**Author's Note:**

> The first fic I post here and it's a rarepair. This can only bode well for me I'm sure. 
> 
> Also I apologise for Carter's attempts at flirting in advance,,,

When Zolf and Wilde caught him and recruited him, you could say that Carter wasn’t too pleased about it at first. However, as the full scale of the current global situation became clear to him, he was glad they wanted him on their side and didn’t leave him to fend for himself. The thought of getting taken over by those blue veins was one Carter really preferred not to dwell on. He often found himself wondering how many people were infected already, if there were any people he knew among them. Even people like Sasha, Grizzop, Azu and Hamid, whom he had only met briefly. They hadn’t met or left off on the best of terms, but he still wondered. No one deserved a fate like that. Communicating with people was hard these days though, if you could reach people at all, you had to be careful with what you said, just in case it turned out they got infected. It was a real pain in the ass as far as Carter was concerned. If he were to be more honest with himself, he was terrified about the current state of things. But no need to linger on that.

Presently, he was on a mission to recruit a British ex-navy commander by the name of James Barnes. He was given a list of ports where he might dock his ship and a rough physical description and was expected to figure it out from there. As much as Carter had been glad that he was on the non-infected side of this war, he still had some squabbles with both Zolf and Wilde on occasion. This vague description had been the subject of one such squabble. How was he supposed to find the man when the description was just things like “He has light brown skin.” and “He has dark brown hair, last I remember it was short but I don’t know if it still is.”?

So here he was, stalking in the shadows of the port in Dover, trying to sneak onto the ship that, according to intel he had gathered in town, was supposed to belong to Barnes. He carefully dodged the line of sight of several crewmates and snuck into a crate that was yet to be lifted onto the ship. The crate was fairly roomy as far as crates go but it was still far from comfortable. It wasn’t big enough to really move in and he was about ready to crawl out of his skin with all of this pent up energy he was holding. But he’s good at being sneaky, this is fine, he knows how to do this. It’s fine. 

By the time he figured the coast was clear he was losing his mind from how bored he was. Really, how long do crew members need to be in the cargo hold for? You drop off the cargo and you leave! But nooooooo they just had to linger for what Carter figured was at least another hour after the ship had set sail. He couldn’t move because it was too cramped, he couldn’t sing to himself because he would get caught, and he couldn’t even draw or practice his lock picking because he couldn’t see! It was unbearable! Truly boredom was a fate worse than death. At least to Carter.

Finally out of the crate and able to stretch his legs, he was tempted to dive straight into the ocean and swim laps around the ship. Not that he would do that of course, but he was tempted. He couldn’t hear any sounds from below or above the deck, so he figured it must be night by now. Still though, he proceeded carefully. Once he was out in the open air again, he took a moment to get his bearings. It was a fairly large ship, not the biggest thing Carter had ever seen or even been on, but still pretty impressive. From the looks of things, they were quite a ways from the shore already. This recruitment mission had better go well or he feared he would end up as shark food.

“Hold it right there stranger! Who are you and what are you doing on my ship?” 

Well shit. There goes that plan. No, he could still salvage this. Right? Yeah, of course he could. Carter turned around to face the person who had just spoken. Said person had by now walked up to him, and was pointing the very sharp looking edge of his sword at Carter’s chest. He immediately put his hands up as a sign of surrender. 

“Woah, hey now, no need for the hostility! I’m not here to pick a fight. Or to steal for that matter!” 

The man’s eyes narrowed and he now had the tip of his blade right under Carter’s chin. ‘Great job Carter, could you have put your foot any further into your own mouth if you tried?’ Self-deprecating thoughts aside, this just won’t do. 

“Okay okay, don’t stab me please, name’s Howard Carter, I’m looking for a man named James Barnes?” He really didn’t want to get stabbed today, especially not by this really handsome man that currently had him at the business end of his sword. Wait did he say this was _his_ ship? Does that mean he is-- 

“James Barnes, yes that would be me. And what business could an infamous thief such as yourself have with me?” Ah. So he really was the man he was sent to find! Great, now if he could just diffuse this situation enough to where Barnes was willing to hold a normal conversation with him then-- 

“Listen up Carter, you’re taking really long to answer my question so for all I know you’re here to steal my stuff at best. Or worse you’re infected, and they sent you to take me out. I don’t have the time for this.” Shit. This was the opposite of what he wanted. With a few quick acrobatic movements, Carter put some distance between himself and Barnes. 

“No, honest! I’m here for good reason! They sent me to recruit you for the fight against this blue vein infection!” By the time Carter got the words out of his mouth, Barnes had recovered from the surprise of Carter’s evasive tricks and was advancing towards him again. With each step Barnes took towards him, Carter took a step back. He really shouldn’t be getting distracted at a time like this, but Carter couldn’t help himself. Barnes had no right being this handsome. He did indeed have light brown skin and dark brown hair. As it turned out, however, his hair was long and tied back into a low ponytail. He wore what looked to be a navy commander’s coat, but without most of the fancy regalia. Under that, he wore a flowy shirt that was so far unbuttoned, he might as well not have worn it at all. His trousers were far too form fitting for Carter’s poor heart, and the scars he could see marking Barnes’ body only added to the hot pirate aesthetic he had going on.

Both his thoughts and his vocal attempts at de-escalating the situation were interrupted when his back hit wood and he realised he was pinned against the wall of the captain’s quarters. Great. Truly an expert show of strategic skill by Howard Carter. If he got out of this alive, he was never going to live this down. He got out one of his daggers and barely managed to block the incoming blow from Barnes’ sword. As they exchanged slashes and stabs that were either blocked or missed, Carter tried to figure out what he was supposed to do now. Not only was Barnes really good looking, he was also really skilled. No, Carter, not now. For God’s sake. 

This back and forth went on for a little while, and Carter was running out of stamina. He’s made for lethal surprise attacks and sneaking, not long lasting one-on-one fights. He needed to come up with something to gain the advantage. So naturally the first thing he blurted out was, “As much as I appreciate a man with skill, I’d much rather be at the business end of another kind of ‘blade’.” ...Carter really needed to learn to think before he spoke. It seemed to throw Barnes off a little bit though, so to hell with it, Carter figured he might as well use this then. Couldn’t hurt to flirt a bit with someone you hoped would become your ally, right? Right. That totally isn't too forward at all whatsoever.

Shut up, inner voice.

"Really hope you're not infected, because aside from being here on a recruitment mission, I wouldn't be opposed to getting to know you better in general." Carter continued to make flirtatious comments of questionable tastefulness. Continuing to dodge and block as best as he could. He was really getting winded by now.

"Y-you say you're here to recruit me. Who sent you?" Barnes asked. He attempted to sound authoritative, but his voice wavered. Whether that was from exertion or from the excessive flirting, Carter couldn’t tell. Either way, he answered Barnes honestly, and that did seem to finally make Barnes consider him as more than just an intruder. Still, however, he was showing no signs of letting up on his advance. The crewmates had gathered around by now to see what their captain was up to, but they were making no moves to intervene in any way. Wankers. Actually, no, if they did intervene they would side with Barnes, obviously. Let them stay where they are.

It took about 5 more minutes before Carter tripped on something behind him and fell flat on his back. He was so tired. Still, that was a rookie mistake. Good job, Carter. Truly. ...Shut up thoughts.

Immediately the tip of Barnes blade was back at his throat, tilting his chin up so that he was forced to look up at the victorious captain. In all his handsome glory… Okay seriously, Carter, get your head out of the gutter, you met the man like 15 minutes ago. He heard cheering and taunting from the crew, once he brought his mind back to the present. They were clearly pleased their captain had shown who was the boss around here. Bloody bastards.

"Alright Carter, here's what's going to happen." Barnes said, still not removing his sword from the vicinity of his throat. Both of them were panting hard, as if they'd run a mile uninterrupted. Carter allowed himself a brief moment to feel proud that Barnes' victory had at least not been an easy one. Though that also meant that Barnes was hot and messy, and Carter swore he could actually see a drop of sweat roll from his chest down to his navel and--- No!! Stop it!! For fuck's sake, now is _not_ the time!! Barnes must've noticed he was distracted, because he lightly tapped the underside of his chin twice with the blade tip to get his attention again.

"You're going to let me lead you to the holding cell, where you will sit for the full week of quarantine, and after all infection-related suspicions are cleared, we can have that talk about recruitment, agreed?" The way Barnes' sword inched ever closer, to the point where he could feel the tip actually press into his skin when he swallowed, really didn't leave room to argue. So Carter, very carefully, gave Barnes a small nod. He was promptly hauled up to his feet again and led below deck to where the holding cell was. 

As Barnes nudged him inside and locked the door behind him, Carter chanced another flirtatious comment. "So, handsome, have you ever had this amount of raw **tension** with any other people who wandered onto your ship?" He made sure to really emphasise the word 'tension' in a way that could not be denied was an innuendo if he tried. Barnes let out a strangled noise of…? Bewilderment? It was hard to tell, but it looked like he was blushing. The dim lighting could be playing tricks on his eyes though, Carter figured. A moment later, Barnes let out a breath he was apparently holding.

"I'll see you in seven days, Carter." And with that statement, he briskly turned around, and walked away.

"Aw, come on! Don't be like that, at least give me something to pass the time with!" Carter yelled after him, but he doubted Barnes was still listening. Of course, he could easily break out of this cell, the lock was almost laughably easy to pick. He couldn't afford to do that though, he'd have to start all over with Barnes from square one. Instead, he settled down and took out his sketchbook and some drawing tools. The lighting wasn't ideal, but he could make it work. These were going to be seven very long days… But how bad could they really be when he was on a ship with his new artistic muse? Not that Carter would ever let Barnes see the drawings he made of him, if he could help it.

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed this please leave a comment, it fuels my writing fire!


End file.
